1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a re-closable pouring element for liquid food packaged in cardboard/plastic composite packages including a base, encircled by a flange and having both a solidly constructed inner thread and an outer thread, an opening element having at least one cutting edge or the like and a screw cap formed as a threaded lid, wherein the opening element has a solidly constructed outer thread and is arranged inside the base and wherein the opening element is fanned in such a way that when the screw cap is used for the first time, it cuts an opening in the material of the package located under the pouring element.
2. Description of Related Art
Re-closable pouring elements for liquid food packaged in cardboard/plastic composite packages of various configurations are known in practice. On the one hand they serve for first-time opening of the packages and in the configuration of interest here are fitted from the outside onto the already filled and closed package. The package material in the region of the (later) opening for pouring frequently has a weakened area for this purpose. This can be formed either as a perforation of the material or however as an opening for pouring in the substrate (cardboard), which when the inner and outer plastic layers are laminated is covered over with plastic, usually polyethylene.
In each case it is necessary, when opening for the first time, that a cutting force applied by the user is translated into an opening operation, so that reliable opening of a sufficiently large opening for pouring is ensured. Besides pouring elements with swivelling opening elements, in particular such pouring elements, which are provided with a screw cap as lid and whereby twisting off the screw cap for the first time causes corresponding turning of a ring-shaped opening element into the package material, have proven satisfactory.
A generic pouring element of this kind is disclosed in EP 1 088 764 A1. It consists of a base, encircled by a mounting flange, having a hollow-cylindrical opening element arranged therein and a screw cap, wherein the three individual parts are coordinated with one another, so that when the pouring element is opened for the first time, by means of positive connection between screw cap and opening element, a helical movement of the opening element and thus creation of an opening for pouring results. Three-part pouring elements of this kind require to a certain extent a not insignificant amount of time and expense for their assembly. It is clear that the known pouring element apart from its complex assembly cannot be arbitrarily formed to be small, for example to be used with correspondingly small package sizes such as 0.2 or 0.25 liters. Since such small package sizes have a relatively narrow head area, it is no longer possible during production of the packages to work with covered over openings for pouring. The known three-part pouring element however is only able to open a covered over opening for pouring.
EP 1 262 412 A1 discloses a pouring element wherein openings are provided in the wall of the opening element, in the region of which the outer thread of the opening element is interrupted. This however is “coerced interruption”, which does not have anything in common with easier assembly.
Another pouring element is disclosed in EP 1 571 0 95 A1. Openings which serve as interlocking elements for an active material present in the pouring element are also arranged here in the opening element. It is clear that the threaded sections are also interrupted here in the region of the openings, however again conditioned by coercion and not for easier assembly of the individual parts.
WO 03/101843 A1 describes a three-part pouring element, wherein however the opening element is not moved by screwing. Here the actual opening operation consists in a combination of a piercing and a rotating motion, thus superimposition of an axial and a radial movement.